- 2 minutes ago
Some family stories sound too wild to believe, until the paper trail says otherwise. Join us as we count down the most jaw-dropping celebrity genealogy reveals on Finding Your Roots, where old rumors about hidden parentage, Indigenous ancestry, unexpected nobility, and even Pocahontas herself turned out to be true. From moving DNA matches to shocking historical records, these confirmations changed everything.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I mean this is the first time I'm actually hearing this and seeing it in writing that he
00:04that this wasn't some sort of folklore. Welcome to Ms. Mojo and today we're counting down our
00:10picks for the most incredible celebrity family legends that were found to be documented history
00:14on Finding Your Roots. This was a very unexpected turn doctor. Number 10. Pamela Adlon. Actress and
00:23writer Pamela Adlon came to the show with a family mystery that had followed her mother for decades.
00:28She had heard that the man believed to be her maternal grandfather Leonard was not actually
00:33related to her and that her mother Marina had been born from an affair. I want I want to know
00:38and I
00:39don't I don't want to disrespect my lineage but I really I I'm so curious. The Finding Your Roots
00:48researchers first used DNA to establish that Leonard was not Marina's biological father. They then
00:53connected Marina genetically to the Walthu family and identified Joseph Walthu as her biological
00:59father. Oh my god this is crazy. A living descendant Gloria Walthu Wood proved crucial sharing the DNA
01:06expected of a maternal half-sibling. In the end Gates showed Adlon a photograph of Joseph finally
01:12putting a face to the family lore. Oh this is just the best. Wow. I'm so happy that I get
01:20to
01:20give this to my mom. I am too. You just discovered a whole new family. Yes. A whole new family.
01:26It's
01:26really really cool. Number 9. Lisa Ling. A story about TV journalist Lisa Ling's sixth great grandfather
01:33sounded almost too neat to be true. In his youth, Hal attempted to climb China's bureaucratic ladder
01:39but failed. He was unable to pass what was known as a provincial exam. So he was given a minor
01:46government position in a distant province. Hao Ling had reportedly failed China's provincial
01:51examination then redeemed himself by helping save a town during the catastrophic Yellow River flood of
01:571761. Family lore said that when the flood threatened to destroy the entire community, Hao led a group of
02:03the townsmen to gather materials to prevent that from happening. Hao ordered that the able-bodied men of
02:09the town move basket after basket of soil as well as padded quilts, trousers, and jackets from pawn shop
02:15storehouses to seal the leaks in the town walls. The show's researchers located records at Beijing's
02:21Imperial Academy that supported this account. The grateful townspeople later helped him retake the exam
02:26and this time, he passed with distinction. And of course he passed it. And he passed it.
02:35Oh my goodness, that's amazing. I wonder who graded that exam and said, you gotta let Hal, Hal's our boy,
02:41man,
02:41you gotta pass the exam. Number 8. Cory Booker. The story Cory Booker carried was one his grandfather had told
02:47him
02:47directly. Limery grew up in Louisiana, the child of black parents, but he looked so unlike his brother,
02:54that his actual biological father's identity was always in question. Limery Jordan, Booker's maternal
03:01grandfather, was noticeably lighter skinned than his siblings, and he had long believed his biological
03:06father was a white doctor. He even recalled the moment his mother brought him at around age 13 to meet
03:12a
03:12white physician, and then told him afterward that the man was his father, but he never knew his name.
03:17But the circumstances behind that, we don't know, okay? Remember these were segregated times,
03:25and she lived in the deep south. And certainly, you know, that one time, it could be anything. We just
03:33don't know. Researchers narrowed the field of possible candidates to Dr. Stephen H. Brown,
03:37then tracked down a living descendant. DNA testing showed Booker and that descendant shared genetic
03:43material across multiple chromosomes, consistent with being second cousins. Cory, you and Michael
03:49Hislop have shared segments of DNA on your first, your fourth, and your tenth chromosomes. You and
03:56Michael descend from the same man. Wow. Booker was then shown a photograph of Brown, whom he
04:02immediately said resembled his grandfather. That's him. That must be him. You know why? He looks a lot
04:09like my grandfather. He looks a lot like my grandfather. Unbelievable. I'm blown away.
04:15Think you've heard all the family secrets? There is plenty more where that came from. And it's over
04:20on the Ms. Mojo 24-7 live stream. Scan the QR code on your screen to join. I got chills.
04:26This is
04:27incredible. Number seven, Sterling K. Brown. Actor Sterling K. Brown had grown up with a family story
04:33about his great-great-grandparents, Frank and Sally Banks. According to the family, the couple had been
04:38unusually successful after emancipation and had managed to own their own farm in Mississippi.
04:43Your great-great-grandparents, Frank and Sally, owned their own farm. And that was no small feat.
04:49No. In 1900, less than 20% of all black farmers in Mississippi owned the land that they worked on.
04:56Finding Your Roots went looking for documentation rather than simply taking the story at face value.
05:01The 1900 census provided it. Frank and Sally were indeed listed as farm owners in Liberty, Mississippi.
05:08Are you surprised to see that? This is in keeping with lore. This is in keeping with lore. And it's
05:14nice to know that
05:14like, okay, they didn't over-inflate this part. That mattered because black land ownership in
05:21the post-emancipation South was hardly guaranteed. The discovery backed up the family's account and
05:26showed that their achievement was substantial for its time. Their story of building something of
05:30their own really did survive the paper trail. That's cool. That's cool.
05:39Number 6. Tracy Letts. Tracy's mother, Billy Dean Gibson, had often claimed to have Cherokee
05:47ancestors. But in Oklahoma, long the home of various native peoples, such claims are common
05:54and usually wrong. Every family has that one relative whose stories nobody quite believes. For
06:01Tracy Letts, that was his mother, Billy Dean Gibson, who insisted for years that she had Cherokee
06:06ancestry. In Oklahoma, where, as Letts acknowledged, seemingly everyone makes a similar claim, the story
06:11was met with gentle skepticism and even good-natured ribbing from her own children.
06:16My mom used to claim it and we teased her about it as if it were not true. His mother
06:20even joked about
06:21having a Cherokee princess in the family tree. Then, Finding Your Roots found an obituary for her great
06:26grandfather, Jack S. Burgess, that explicitly identified him as Cherokee. What's it like to see that in
06:31black and white? Well, it's great. My mom is taking her revenge for all the teasing we gave
06:39her over the years about saying that she had Cherokee blood. The research kept going. Gates traced
06:45Letts' Cherokee lineage through his fourth great-grandfather, William Burgess, identifying
06:49indigenous ancestry spanning multiple generations. Turns out Billy Dean Gibson was right the whole
06:54time. She used to play into the joke, too. She'd say, well, my great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee
07:00princess or whatever. She played into the joke.
07:02Number five, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Maggie Gyllenhaal had grown up with an unusually glamorous family
07:07legend. An ancestor supposedly became Swedish nobility after creating a beautiful book about
07:12butterflies for the king. Made such a beautiful book about butterflies that the king of Sweden sent
07:17all of his minions out to find this poor farmer or whatever he was who happened to have made this
07:24beautiful book and brought him back to the palace to talk to him and ended up making him some kind
07:31of
07:31Swedish royalty. The story, as told, was wrong, but Finding Your Roots discovered that its ingredients
07:38had been scrambled rather than invented. Gyllenhaal's ancestor Niels Gunnarsson Hall was knighted by Queen
07:43Christina in 1652 for bravery during the Thirty Years' War, and he adopted the Gyllenhaal name.
07:49And it was the tradition at that time when a soldier was knighted that he could change his name.
07:54And so his last name, which had been Hall, was changed to Gyllenhaal, Gyllen meaning golden in
08:01Swedish. Another ancestor, Leonard Gyllenhaal, really was a serious insect collector whose collection is
08:07still actively used in Uppsala University. So the family seemed to have remembered both the noble
08:12ancestor and the insect obsession, but ended up shuffling the details.
08:17The myth of your family origins was all true except it was rearranged.
08:21I had no idea.
08:22I think it's cool.
08:23No, it is.
08:24You know.
08:25It is cool to see it, you know, to have evidence that the things I've heard are true.
08:30Number 4. Nora O'Donnell
08:32For most of her childhood, TV anchor Nora O'Donnell had heard that her grandfather Edward O'Kane
08:37entered America as a stowaway from Ireland and used Canada as a route into the United States.
08:42Family story is a little bit like the game of telephone. You know telephone?
08:46Yeah, right.
08:47All right. So let's see how much of the way the story got to you, how much of that was
08:53true.
08:54Okay.
08:54The Finding Your Roots researchers checked the story against immigration records and found
08:58that the family had the outline right, but the mechanics wrong. O'Kane legally sailed from
09:03Belfast aboard the SS Coronia in 1924, listing Canada as his destination.
09:07Where bound Quebec, Edward O'Kane 27, class 3rd, country of intended future permanent residence,
09:15Canada.
09:16Within weeks, he crossed into the United States by train without presenting the required paperwork.
09:21He then lived in America illegally for 16 years before receiving legal status in 1943.
09:26So he wasn't a shipboard stowaway. He really did use Canada to reach America and remain there
09:32undocumented.
09:33I think very few people would look at Nora O'Donnell on the CBS Evening News and think
09:40her grandfather was an undocumented immigrant.
09:43Mm-hmm.
09:44But he was.
09:44But he was.
09:45He was.
09:46And the system forgave him.
09:48Number three, Lee Daniels.
09:50Now turning to Lee's mother's roots, we trace back two generations to his great-grandparents,
09:57Edward and Mary Watson, and encountered a very different kind of secret.
10:02Dark family stories occupy a specific space, somewhere between rumor and something nobody
10:07really wants confirmed.
10:09Lee Daniels had heard a disturbing piece of family lore about his great-grandparents, Edward
10:13and Mary Watson.
10:14The story said Edward had shot and killed Mary, but Daniels did not know whether it was
10:18accurate.
10:19My great-grandfather.
10:21Mm-hmm.
10:21Edward.
10:22Edward.
10:24Shot my great-grandmother.
10:26Mm-hmm.
10:27And killed her.
10:28Okay.
10:29How accurate is that?
10:30We're gonna find out.
10:31Okay.
10:31The show located the answer in a March 1922 Philadelphia Inquirer report.
10:36It documented Edward shooting Mary in a drugstore, with Mary later dying from her wound.
10:40The same report said Edward then shot himself.
10:43Mm-hmm.
10:44That's a lot to take in.
10:45Mm-hmm.
10:46It's coming back to me now.
10:47I think that she had had an affair.
10:49He survived, was later found mentally incompetent, and was committed to Fairview, a state institution.
10:55After six years, records showed that he left without permission.
10:58Daniels was visibly shaken during the reveal.
11:01And having my mother and father fighting, I think in the back of my head, I always felt
11:07that something like that could happen to my mother.
11:09Oh, that's horrible to live in fear of that.
11:12Yeah.
11:12Number two.
11:13Ty Burrell.
11:14Ty Burrell was a teenager when his family told him that his maternal great-great-grandmother,
11:18Susanna Weeks, was black.
11:20Did you believe the story?
11:21Well, I had a hard time, but I wanted to believe it was true.
11:25He had trouble believing it, especially because later generations were identified as white.
11:30On Finding Your Roots, researchers traced weeks through the documented records and found
11:34evidence that she was a free woman of color who eventually secured a homestead in Oregon.
11:39You do have black ancestry.
11:41Your family story was true.
11:44Wow.
11:45That gives me chills.
11:47Ty Burrell, talk about a modern family, brother.
11:49The team then turned to DNA.
11:51Burrell's admixture results showed 1.4% sub-Saharan African ancestry.
11:56Gates calculated that this was essentially what would be expected from an African ancestor
12:00four generations back.
12:01The genetic result backed the family story, transforming a teenage rumor into something
12:06Burrell could finally see in his own DNA.
12:09She looks tough.
12:11I'm just in complete admiration.
12:15I wish I could say I related to the toughness.
12:26Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's album, Balance, classical music
12:31reimagined as rock, hard rock, and metal.
12:34Check out the full track and album below.
12:37Born in the sunlight, born in the rain, life is a rhythm running through veins.
12:49Number one, Edward Norton.
12:52Having Pocahontas as a direct ancestor sounds like exactly the kind of thing families invent.
12:57He'd grown up hearing that his father's roots traced deep into colonial Virginia's past,
13:03and that he was, in fact, a direct descendant of Pocahontas, the Powhatan woman who married
13:10the Virginia settler John Rolfe.
13:12Actor Edward Norton knew the story growing up, but treated it the way most people would,
13:16as a charming piece of family mythology, probably not literal.
13:20The Finding Your Roots team didn't find a vague genetic signal or a tenuous connection.
13:25Henry Louis Gates presented Norton with a direct documentary paper trail linking him
13:29to Pocahontas through her marriage to John Rolfe.
13:32This meant that Pocahontas was Norton's 12th great-grandmother.
13:35I understand that was family lore.
13:37Well, it is absolutely true.
13:39And how could you possibly determine that?
13:42Through the paper trail.
13:43It would have been documented, the paper trail of their children.
13:47Of course.
13:48Norton was truly stunned by this revelation.
13:50A family legend that sounded almost too famous to be true turned out to actually be true.
13:56This is about as far back as you can go.
13:58It's as far back as you can go.
13:59And that's it.
13:59Unless you're a Viking.
14:00Yeah, that's right.
14:01It just makes you realize what a, what a, what a small, you know, piece of the whole
14:07human story you are.
14:08What rumors in your family tree have you been able to confirm?
14:11Let us know in the comments.